1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer generation of printable materials, and the fields of document editing and manipulation, and publishing in both print and digital media. More specifically, the invention relates to systems, methods, and computer programs for the production of printed and digital works wherein information from a database is accepted and modified so that a pagination program can create a formatted, printable or viewable, output.
2. Background Information
For years, companies with products to sell have taken advantage of written publications to advertise, display, and market their wares. With the advent of computer databases, word processing software, and publishing applications, the process has become substantially easier. A seller can now create a product catalogue that is more easily manipulated with regard to text, graphics and pagination.
Two of the most extensively used products developed and marketed for this purpose are, FileMaker® by FileMaker, Inc., and FrameMaker® by Adobe Systems Incorporated. (References to these two programs are illustrative as specific examples. Other programs which accomplish similar functions, or have similar structure, in whole or in part, may also be used in connection with the present invention.) FileMaker® is a commercial database designed to store large amounts of data in an ordered, field based format. FrameMaker® is a pagination program designed to take information and create paginated text and graphics for publication. Unfortunately, information from FileMaker® cannot be imported or flowed directly into FrameMaker®. A user desiring to create a document suitable for printing in FrameMaker® from information stored in FileMaker® must view the desired information in FileMaker® and then manually enter same in FrameMaker®.
Sellers who create product catalogues have product inventories from which the catalogues are derived. These inventories are not static, but rather are continually changing due to availability of individual products, the introduction of new products, and the discontinuing of old ones. Other changes occur as prices and quantities change, sales or incentives are offered, and different catalogues are created for targeted customers or seasonal products. Additionally, many sellers list products from other manufacturers in the seller's catalogue. All of these factors create dynamics in the seller's master product database which can quickly make data obsolete unless an automated method is used to update and change the data used in each of such several different catalogues, flyers, and on-line catalogues.
Conventionally, the seller will manually enter new product data into its database maintained on a mainframe computer by hand after receiving such new information. For example, a manufacturer may send product data in writing (for example, a new price sheet) to the seller. Personnel for the seller must then enter the new data into the database. Once it is entered, the price is adjusted from the manufacturer's price wholesale price, to the seller's resale price. Each change to product information must be entered by the seller's personnel. This data can be automatically downloaded into a database program such as FileMaker®, but not into a pagination program such as FrameMaker® for pagination purposes. The most popular database programs do not have the pagination capabilities of a pagination program and are unsuitable for such use. FileMaker® data, without modification, is incompatible with FrameMaker® and unusable as input. Therefore, when a seller wishes to create a catalogue, the seller's personnel must retrieve the database product information and re-enter it in the correct format into FrameMaker®. This redundancy creates both added cost and an increased opportunity for errors to be introduced into the product data. Extensive proofing must occur in order to insure the integrity of each portion of the data, particularly the prices.
An alternative, conventional method is for the seller to enter product data when it is received directly into the pagination program. This is also a manual procedure. In this manner, a catalogue can be produced directly, but the data cannot be further manipulated within the pagination program by the seller if more changes are required.
Therefore, an intermediate program is desirable that allows data stored in a database to be streamed through the intermediate program, where the data file is manipulated, so that the output file can be passed directly to a pagination program and a final, output file is created. Such a file could then be printed, or otherwise published, in a variety of ways. It is further desirable to have an interface program with the functions, structure, uses, and attributes of the invention described herein. It is further desirable to have a method and program that specifically interfaces information between FileMaker® and FrameMaker®.